Setting Record, and Setting Record Straight

Tianna Madison, from left, Carmelita Jeter, Bianca Knight and Allyson Felix paused before celebrating a world record in the 4x100-meter relay Friday.Credit
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

LONDON — Far from the London Games, in the eastern German town of Jena, Marlies Gohr watched television Friday as the United States broke one of track and field’s oldest and most suspect records in the women’s 4x100-meter relay.

When the time flashed — 40.82 seconds — even the Americans were stunned. Most sprint records are sliced onion thin, set by hundredths of a second at a time. This one was slashed by more than half a second from the 41.37 run by Gohr and three East German teammates on Oct. 6, 1985, in Canberra, Australia.

On Saturday, Gohr, now 54 and a psychologist, said by telephone that she was not surprised the record had fallen. “Twenty-seven years is a long time,” Gohr said. “The Americans put on a very strong performance.”

That East German record had been set on one of the most infamous days in track and field. Another East German, Marita Koch, ran the open 400 in 47.60 seconds that October in Canberra. No woman has since come closer than 65-hundredths of a second to that mark. Koch’s record seems likely to remain unapproachable for years.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was revealed in documents and trials that East Germany had operated a state-sponsored system of doping known by an Orwellian euphemism: supporting means. Sport became a propaganda tool, and a country of 16 million rivaled the United States and the Soviet Union for Olympic medals.

“I’m glad these records are coming down,” said Steven Ungerleider, an American sports psychologist and the author of “Faust’s Gold,” about the East German system. “They should have been rescinded or marked with asterisks years ago. Everybody knows these were clear violations and doping infractions.”

Of course, doping did not exist only behind the Berlin Wall. Many sprinters other than East Germans have used banned substances. Ben Johnson of Canada and Marion Jones of the United States, to name two, have been stripped of golds. Every sensational performance in track and field now brings celebration tempered by skepticism.

When asked about the validity of the East German relay record, Gohr said, “With doping, why do they always mention the East Germans but not the Americans or the Jamaicans?”

Gohr won gold medals in the 4x100 relay at the 1976 Montreal Games and the 1980 Moscow Games. She finished second at 100 meters in Moscow. In 1977, Gohr was credited with being the first woman to run 100 meters under 11 seconds with electronic timing. On Saturday, as she has previously, she denied ever having knowingly used illicit substances to fuel her speed.

“The East German system was very strong,” Gohr said. “We had many good trainers.”

The problem with Gohr’s denial is that it has been proved to be false, said Dr. Werner Franke, a molecular biologist from Heidelberg, Germany.

Photo

Marlies Gohr and East Germany held a suspect record for 27 years.Credit
Tony Duffy/Allsport

Upon German reunification in 1990, Franke uncovered a trove of secret doping documents in the East German central army hospital in the resort town of Bad Saarow. He assisted his wife, Brigitte Berendonk, whose landmark 1991 book, translated as “Doping: From Research to Cheating,” revealed the details of the East German system.

On Saturday, Franke said by phone that Gohr had received performance-enhancing drugs from the time she was a teenager, according to the documents he uncovered. Her highest annual dosage of the steroid Oral-Turinabol was 1,405 milligrams in 1984, a year before the relay record was set, Franke said.

He sympathized with the former East Germans who took banned substances, Franke said. They lived in an authoritarian society. Some young athletes thought they were taking vitamins, not steroids. A number have developed health problems thought to be related to steroids. About 200 former athletes have been acknowledged as victims by the German government and have received payments. The real number of victims may be 2,000, Franke said.

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Some former East German athletes have admitted using banned substances. A few have renounced their medals. Others like Gohr should step forward, Franke said.

“The International Olympic Committee has decided not to do anything to them,” he said. “They should clarify and clear their name. To tell the truth does not damage you.”

At the London Games, the United States had run a blistering time in the heats of the 4x100 relay. Before Friday’s final, Bianca Knight turned to Allyson Felix and said, “We’ll probably get the world record today.”

Knight, 23, was not yet born when the East German record was set. In fact, her birth date came only 10 months before the Berlin Wall fell. For all she knew, Knight said, the East German record stood so long because relay runners struggled with their baton exchanges, a familiar American malady.

“Our main goal: get the stick around,” Knight said.

The Americans did, flawlessly.

Tianna Madison handed the baton to Felix, who passed it to Knight, who gave it to Carmelita Jeter for the anchor leg. As she sped home, Jeter pointed to the clock near the finish line. “My heart said, ‘We just did it,’ ” Jeter said. “I didn’t know we ran 40.82. But I definitely knew we ran well.”

Felix, the Olympic 200-meter champion, saw the time on the scoreboard and was confused. “That is not a 4x100 time,” she told herself. “What is going on?”

The East German record had been considered beyond reach for so many years. So Felix waited to celebrate. The posted results are unofficial. Sometimes they change. But 40.82 stood.

“This is insane,” Felix told herself.

None of the American sprinters on the record-setting relay team have been implicated in doping. But history made the reaction to their accomplishment complicated, joy mixing with restraint.

“Most people in the Olympic bubble have to look carefully at every record that is broken,” said Ungerleider, the author and sports psychologist. “Everyone has to shake their head and say, ‘I hope it’s clean.’ There’s a bit of skepticism. Everyone is careful, circumspect.”

2012 LONDON

A version of this article appears in print on August 12, 2012, on Page SP1 of the New York edition with the headline: Setting Record, And Setting Record Straight. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe